Buyer

About Down East Seafood

For over 30 years, Down East Seafood has been a go-to source for the freshest, highest-quality seafood among New York’s most celebrated chefs. What began as a single van sourcing clams from Maine has grown into a full-line seafood operation, delivering sustainably sourced selections six days a week across the Tri-State area. Based in a 17,000-square-foot facility in the heart of Hunt’s Point, the Bronx, Down East combines local expertise with coastal reach—providing premium seafood to restaurants in NYC, Westchester, Long Island, Southern Connecticut, and Northern New Jersey. With a commitment to freshness, traceability, and chef-focused service, Down East continues to bring the ocean’s bounty straight to the back of house.

Position Summary

Coordinates inventory replenishment activities with suppliers, sales, logistics and operations for assigned categories.

Responsibilities

• Place purchase orders with vendors utilizing an awareness of seasonal fluctuations, market effects and other information that require a high attention to detail to avoid spoilage, overstocks, and shortages.
• Manage and maintain the entire Purchase-to-Pay process, covering PO Creation, Vendor Confirmation, accurate expected delivery date updates, and collaboration with Accounts Payable to ensure payment.
• Maintain Purchasing system data to effectively generate suggested POs.
• Maintain necessary required vendor documents (electronic and physical), such as W-9’s, Indemnities, etc.
• Work closely with vendors to ensure POs are filled and delivered in a timely fashion; vendors to manage FDA issues; logistics to minimize freight expenses; Sales Managers to manage out-of-stock or over-stock risks; Customer Service teams to enable sales order growth; and Buyers to build upon best-practices.
• Build and maintain vendor relationships to not only support PO fulfillment, but also negotiate volume discounts and price breaks wherever possible.
• Manage Fusion system issues that impact Purchasing and Receiving.
• Maintain BFC dating system to minimize close dated issues and Expired product impact.

Qualifications

• 5+ years buying experience with a focus on Specialty Food Products for a multi-unit Distribution Organization.
• Bachelor’s degree from accredited four-year college or university preferred.
• Previous food service distribution and/or food importing experience strongly preferred.
• Commodity product awareness including blanket commitments, contractual processes, and appropriate market tracking.
• Advanced Excel Skill and additional Computer skills (JDE, Microsoft Suite – Word and PowerPoint, etc.).
• Must have a sense of urgency and be able to work under pressure, be comfortable in a fast-paced, metrics-driven environment.
• Flexible with the ability to work well with all departments and levels of staff both internally & externally.
• Professional demeanor during all interactions with vendors, customers and fellow employees via phone or in-person.
• Have a drive to advance within the organization.
• Must be a team player with a positive attitude.
• Excellent verbal/written communication skills and a high level of analytical capabilities within Excel.
• Self-starter, professional, goal oriented and able to handle multiple tasks.

Benefits

• Paid Vacations, Paid Holidays
• Health, Dental and Medical Benefits
• Weekly pay
• Life Insurance
• 5% above cost for our high-quality food products
• Employee discounts for travel and events
• 401k
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan